A direct air service between Qingdao in Shandong province and Los Angeles in the US launched on Dec. 11, bringing the number of intercontinental air routes at Qingdao Airport to eight.

The flight service is operated by domestic airliner XiamenAir. A single trip takes nearly 11.5 hours, operated by a Boeing 787-9 aircraft which departs Qingdao at 10:25 pm and Los Angeles at 11:55 pm three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The Boeing 787-9 airplane has 287 seats including 30 ones in the business cabin.

Qingdao has previously established air links with Frankfurt, San Francisco, Melbourne, Vancouver, Moscow, Sydney, London.